A Message from Rabbi David Wolpe – ADL’s Inaugural Rabbinic Fellow

Hate is generic but hatreds are specific. Different kinds of prejudice play out in different ways, and the Jewish people have spent many centuries thinking about prejudice — and love — and how each flourishes in God’s world.

When the CEO of ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, asked me to serve as the Inaugural Rabbinic Fellow of the organization, I realized it was an opportunity to enrich the Jewish teachings of this organization whose work to combat hatred flows from the sources of our tradition. Leviticus 19:17 alone may be taken as the motto of what we seek to accomplish:

Do not hate your brother in your heart.

We are all kin. While much of ADL’s work is monitoring those who would be destructive and taking action against them, ultimately we seek to change hearts. Through a weekly parasha (weekly Torah portion) commentary and other speaking and writing, I hope to bring this message from a century old organization and a millennial tradition to a divided and needy world.

Vayishlah – Why Didn’t Esau Kill Jacob?

12/13/24

When Jacob hears that Esau, the brother who has sworn to kill him, is coming with 400 men, “Jacob was greatly frightened (Gen. 32:8).” Yet after his encounter with the angel, from which he emerges limping, Jacob in fact does not send presents ahead but “he himself went on ahead.” He now has the courage to present himself to his brother without the propitiation of gifts or appeals to mercy by first parading his family.

Jacob’s confidence is justified. Instead of killing him, Esau falls on his neck and both weep. Why?

Rashbam (12th century) points out that Jacob is known for running away. When he deceived his father and took the birthright, he ran. When he left Laban’s house, he ran. Esau sees that Jacob has a limp. He can no longer run. The evader, the trickster, is straightforward and present. When Esau sees Jacob uneasy stride, he realizes this is a different person from the brother whom he swore to kill.

Benno Jacob was a German rabbi at the beginning of the 20th century. He, too, points to Jacob’s limp, but draws a different conclusion. Esau remembered a Jacob whom he took as arrogant and entitled. Now the arrogant brother is gone, and in his place is an older, limping man who had been wounded by life. Struck by the difference, according to Rabbi Jacob, Esau’s heart changed.

These are both cogent and interesting readings. Yet my favorite is one offered by my father, z”l.

Esau and Jacob were twins. They were not identical twins, but they had been born at the same time. They were the same age.

For most ancient people the world was without mirrors, and one rarely if ever saw oneself. Now for the first time in decades, Esau is confronted by his twin. Esau sees how old Jacob has grown and therefore recognizes how old he, too, has grown. Much of life has passed, wasted, in hate. Before Esau stands a mirror of the years and everything that has been lost. 

Emmanuel Levinas, the French Jewish philosopher, wrote: “In front of the face, I always demand more of myself.” To truly see another person is to be better oneself. 

At this hinge of history, Esau saw the face of Jacob, rose to the moment, and wept.

Rabbi David Wolpe

Rabbi David Wolpe

As ADL’s Inaugural Rabbinic Fellow, Rabbi David Wolpe serves as a thought leader within the organization, advising on interfaith and intergroup affairs, and sharing his thoughts and reflections with the community at large.

Rabbi David Wolpe is the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times, Wolpe has been named the most influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek and twice named among the 50 most influential Angelinos by LA Magazine. He is the Senior Advisor at Maimonides Fund. He has taught at a number of universities, including UCLA, Hunter College, Pepperdine and the Jewish Theological Seminary and written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Jerusalem Post among other newspapers and journals. Wolpe has also recently accepted a position as visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School.